Creating and Updating Format Rules in Forms

Format rules are defined by Administrators on the Layout tab of the Form Designer. You can add format rules at the grid, row, row metadata cell, column, column metadata cell, or cell level.

Areas on the Layout tab with a green background, indicate locations where rules have been defined.

To create and update format rules:

  1. On the Home page, click Navigator Navigator icon, and then under Create and Manage, click Forms.
  2. Create or edit a form, and then on the Form and Ad Hoc Grid Management page, click Layout.
  3. In Layout, right-click the row, column, or cell level for which you want to add or update the format rule. Depending on the location and whether rules were already defined at that location, you'll see some or all of the following context menu options:

    • Add/Edit Format/Validation Rules: Create or modify rules for individual data cells or all data cells in a grid, row, or column in the Format/Validation Rule Builder.

    • Copy | Paste Format/Validation Rules: Copy and paste the rules at the selected locations.

    • Add/Edit Format/Validation Rules for Metadata: Create or modify format rules for the row metadata cells or column metadata cells in the Format/Validation Rule Builder.

    • Copy | Paste Format/Validation Rules for Metadata: Copy and paste the rules for row metadata cells or column metadata cells at the selected locations.

  4. Select Add/Edit Format/Validation Rules or Add/Edit Format/Validation Rules for Metadata to create or update rules.

    Note:

    To add rules for the entire grid, expand the Format/Validation Rules pane on the right. For Rules for location, select Grid, and then select Add Validation Rule icon (Add Validation Rule).

  5. In the Format/Validation Rule Builder, create a new rule or update an existing rule.
  6. To add a rule, enter a name and description for the rule.

    • If necessary, move the rule by selecting an option from Location. To create a rule similar to an existing rule, click Duplicate icon (Duplicate) and then update the rule. To view rules in the current location, click View Rule. See Viewing Format Rules.

    • Enable format/validation rule: Select to make the format/validation rule available in forms. You can temporarily disable a format/validation rule by clearing this checkbox.

    • Format Only: Select to mark a rule as format only. This option is automatically enabled when a format-only rule is created.

  7. Enter conditional logic for the rule:
    1. For Condition, select Format.

      You can use conditional logic similar to data validation rules when defining or updating format rules. In that case the THEN condition will have the Process Cell Source Type similar to FORMAT condition.

    2. The Source Type field will automatically display the Process Cell option. There are no other Source Type options for the Format condition.

      Format Condition and Process Cell Source Type
    3. In the Actions column on the right, click Process Cell icon (Process Cell) to add formatting instructions. See Cell Formatting Options in Forms.
    4. After you finish adding format instructions, click OK.
  8. As a reminder, when you're ready to enable the rule to make it available in the form, select Enable format/validation rule.

    Tip:

    While you're building a rule, you can save the rule without enabling it. When the rule is ready to be used, you can enable and save the rule to make it available in the form. You can temporarily disable a rule by clearing Enable format/validation rule.

  9. Optional: In the Form and Ad Hoc Grid Management page, you can view and update rules:

    • In the Format/Validation Rules pane on the right side of the Form and Ad Hoc Grid Management page, add, edit, or delete rules at any level, including grid level and metadata cells, by clicking Add Validation Rule icon (Add Validation Rule), Edit Validation Rule icon (Edit Validation Rule), or Delete Selected Validation Rule(s) icon (Delete Selected Validation Rule).

    • If multiple rules are defined at the same location, you can change the order in which rules are processed when rules have the same precedence. To move a rule up, down, or to the top or bottom of the list, select the rule and click the arrows. You cannot reorder rules when you are viewing All Rules. For information about precedence of rules, see Order of Precedence for Format Rules.

  10. In the Form and Ad Hoc Grid Management page, click Finish to save your updates.

    For forms that have formatting rules enabled, formatting is displayed when the form is loaded.

    Note:

    Currently the preview only displays Forms 1.0 runtime. Hence the formatting rules will not be rendered.